Along the Natchez Trace

Thursday, June 30, 2011

THE Trip, Hiking Red Rock State Park, Sedona Arizona

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

When we can, as in, when we have the time, the energy and fair weather, we do like to hike some of the easier trails in parks we are visiting. We have discovered that what the park volunteers and employees consider to be an "easy" hike actually is enough of a challenge for us. After Silly Mountain, I am trying to be very careful in picking our trails. (Stay tuned, even an "easy hike" in some parks ended up being a lot more than we bargained for, one hike in Arches National Park comes to mind.)

Anyway, we were informed by our many mentors/friends/RVing gang that we had to see Red Rock State Park. We set aside a full day to enjoy the park, a hike and a "reverse drive" from Sedona to I 17.

We were NOT disappointed, the park is lovely, clean, well kept, staff knowledgeable and helpful. We chose to hike (what we remember as being approximately 2 miles), starting out from the Visitor's Center we crossed the Kingfisher Bridge, hung a right to follow the path/trail that runs parallel to Oak Creek, joined the Eagle's Nest Trail for a bit, turned onto Coyote Ridge Trail, joined the Apache Fire Trail and eventually walked back down to the Kingfisher Bridge. You can find a map of the trails, here.

The footing was good here, the trail was packed, not a lot of loose gravel, some loose sand. After hiking Silly Mountain near Gold Canyon Arizona (two posts, one and two) and Dripping Springs (also two posts, one and two) just outside of Las Cruces New Mexico, we found this surface to be easy walking. Oh, you can still slip, ya, I did, but only once, and just an inch or two, but, when you are on a narrow path, and the slip could result in a tumble down a steep hill, a slip of just an inch or two is still a wake up call! LOL. But, still this surface was a delight to hike on.

The trails, especially when we got higher in elevation had a lot of sharp switch backs. Trails were well marked. Here is Man on the trail, just past one of those switch backs. Yes, a bit of gravel here and there, but still, basically a well packed surface to hike.

And, even tho I realize that panaromic photos don't show well here at Reflections, sometimes I just have to share one, so, here it is. Remember, clicking on the photo will open it in a new window, a bit larger view, click your back button to return.

Now for a slide show. Yes, you will see some of the views in more than one photo, as we climbed the trails, the views changed, and I kept taking photos of the same thing, over and over again! LOL

Lets go hiking!

After our hike we drove back to Sedona, 179 and out to I 17 to get back to our campground. Can never get enough of the drive and seeing it from the opposite direction from our first drive was great. Photos coming to Reflections soon.

This possibly was one of our favorite hikes taken all winter. Conditions were perfect, the scenery special. It was a FAB day!

*By the way, if you have not looked in a while, there is a photo at the very bottom of this blog of us taken during this hike.

3 comments:

As usual, these are stunning shots! Just wondering, if you are hiking, what kind of temps do you have? Thought I saw you say something about 90s yesterday. I know there's supposed to be a difference in dry vs humid heat. I think I've only been in the humid kind where you break a dripping sweat after the first 30 yards!

Lisa, this hike was done in April. LOL I am a couple of months behind in blogging THE Trip. I'll add some dates in future posts. Yes, it was 90 yesterday, and we are now in Custer South Dakota, many miles and parks and a few hikes down the road from Red Rock Canyon. Loved the place, would love to go back!

Count

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